Sister-in-law is a Pick-Me

When my boyfriend came to my family home to ask for my hand in marriage, my sister-in-law, who was usually cold and aloof, became a completely different person. She flung her arm around me warmly and asked, “Cassie, who’s your favorite? This boyfriend or one of the dozen or so men that you’ve brought home before?”

As I denied her accusation and interrupted her, she cheekily batted her eyelashes at my boyfriend and cooed, “Oh, yes, yes. Cassie has never brought another man home. You’re the lucky first!”

In the midst of dinner, she deliberately took her own soiled underwear out of the bathroom, pinched her nose, and waved it around as she screeched, “Oh my goodness, Cassie! I know you don’t really care about hygiene, but we have guests today! How can you have no shame? It smells so bad!”

My sister-in-law, Ruby Nolan, had been a part of the family for over a year. She got along very well with my parents, but her attitude towards me was somewhat lukewarm. She rarely spoke to me.

She would regularly buy gifts for the whole family but conveniently forget about me. When I came home for summer break, she would take the whole family out for a movie, leaving me to wait for them outside on the porch. During casual chats, she would deliberately bring up topics that would only be relevant to the rest of the group, leaving me out of the conversation. She would even kick up a fuss whenever my parents gave me some money for my living expenses.

I was a straightforward person, so I confronted Ruby several times in person, but every time, she looked at me as if nothing had happened and said, "I don’t hate you or anything! You're just too sensitive!"

She would then snuggle into my brother Calvin's arms and give him puppy eyes, as if a child had thrown an unreasonable tantrum at her and hurt her feelings.

My parents took Ruby’s side and said that she was too gentle to ever deliberately target me. They even warned me that if I continued to be suspicious, it would destroy Calvin’s marriage.

As a result, I often doubted myself. Perhaps I was overreacting about the entire situation. I finally learned the truth on the day I brought Vincent Turner, my boyfriend of two years, back home to meet the family.

Vincent was 6 feet tall, handsome, well-to-do, and had a charming smile. Although his parents were civil servants, he had worked hard and joined a major tech company with an annual salary of about 500,000 dollars.

He was more than perfect in my eyes. My parents were happy for me, but Ruby kept silent with a sullen face. She pulled me aside and asked a bunch of intrusive questions about Vincent. Finally, with a frown, she stared at me as if she had figured me out and said, "I don’t care if you’re dating, but why hide it from the family?